Ramon didn't like how mixed up his teammates were at the moment. Some were super friendly and excited. Some were super excited about things. He didn't want to make anyone else angrier so he kept his silly comments to himself. "uh, I use the power of the earth to aid myself in different ways and stuff." Nice going, great first impressions. "I am kind of curious about your guys' powers if it's not wasting too much time."

Mike seriously needed to have a conversation with Delphi about these suits. The unbearableness of it happened to be increased for him, and coupled with the fact that he was the middle of a desert in the middle of nowhere certainly didn't help. If anything he thought these guys were trying to kill him, but he knew better than that so he wasn't bitter. It really would've been better if they did this mission at night. At least it would have been cooler and it would have lowered their risk of exposure. Though if his hunch was right, someone regardless would definitely stand in their way as they attempted to rescue... a prince was it?

He looked at his Iris. They had been given them so they could feel more like a group, but Mike just wasn't feeling like they were really a team. And now they had another member that somehow gotten here before the rest of them. He tried not to think how or why he got here first. He frowned as he witnessed some completely and ignorantly ignored the new guy. Oh yeah, he could clearly count on these guys to save him if he was in danger. He didn't know if it were the conditions or what, but he doubted the buttheads of the group were warming up any time soon. He honestly wondered the advantages of behaving such a way.

"I think Tailin's right. We would be more effective as a whole of we knew everyone's powers. Everything about me has been enhanced, making me a literal superhuman." He turned to Ramon. "Hi, I'm Mike."

Bertók did as Natalie said, turning on the ICD and staring at it intently, flipping through the options with his free hand. It was interesting, but the purported functions of the small device seemed a bit convoluted to him. After fooling with it for a few seconds he put it away, appearing somewhat unimpressed. As interesting as it was, it wasn't the time to fool around with it.

He listened to the members begin to discuss their powers, but didn't bother mentioning his. Lifting his swaddled payload up again and cradling it as if it were his over-sized child, a description not too far off from reality, he turned to Tailin and the others.
"I don't want to detract from the fun, but save trading powers for back at base," he told them calmly. "Don't give away your assets, especially if we're closer to the target than we think. We've got a mission that I'd rather not do and I'd rather be writing right now, so let's just finish it as quickly as possible."

Abi could cut the tension in the air with a knife, while personally she wanted to see what everyone could do; she knew that dawdling around would do little to help them. She felt like they were in over their head, here they were on their first mission and it was on foreign soil, and a rescue mission no less. They had had no training since uniting as a team, and most of them had little field experience, herself included. Yet the United Nations, and the American government felt it fitting that a group of young people walk into the desert to save royalty. There had to be a reason for such recklessness.

Those who were able to figure out Iris found that their coordinates were displayed on a live-reading of their global positioning. On the map there was an additional blinking circle over where their target would be. There was an additional function that would have displayed the surrounding area in a hologram but time was of the essence.

"Ber –erm..Mirroirs, is right" she said in agreement, nearly forgetting the command that Delphi had given them, "We should probably make our way to the target as soon as possible. Once we return to Olympus, we should all get to know each other." Looking down at her ICD she raised her hand over her eyes to shield them from the glare to gaze into the distance. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we get home" and she began to trudge in the hot sand in the direction instructed. Oh how she hated these uniforms.

*******

After a half an hour of walking, the scenery began to change slightly. While it was still very much a desert, the land seemed to flatten extensively, except for several incredibly large dunes in the distance. If one had to assume, they could say that they were manmade, as they clearly stuck out from the land. For Abi however, it was even more apparent, she could sense the extensive framework of metal housed under the earth and in the sand.

"Pantheon, this is Mercury" buzzed their communication line "On the North face of the largest dune facing away from you, there appears to be a sealed entrance. There is a patrol monitoring the entrance; two guards who do not move from their position, they appear to be armed, and there is a jeep that is roaming the general area with four mercenaries. These men also appear to be armed, and an RPG has been spotted in their possession. Proceed with caution Pantheon. Remember, you still have the essence of surprise on your side."

OOC: This part was supposed to come before Kiki’s post but ninjas. T_T


“Well you’re no fun,” pouted Tailin, looking at Bertók and grimacing to show her displeasure. Turning back towards the group that had followed her suggestion, she gave Mike a gentle punch on the shoulder, along with a reminder that he was “supposed to use code names, silly.” Standing in mock salute, she stated, “Shenanigan, reporting for duty! I move fast and I hit things and do like ten billion damage. So yeah.”


*********


It did not take long for Tailin to decide that walking in deserts was her new least favourite activity. It was hot, the ground slipped beneath her feet and any attempt at conversation was stifled by the more “mature” individuals under pretense of stealthiness.

After what seemed like hours, though in reality only thirty minutes had passed, the group reached the complex that they were meant to infiltrate. The girl looked upon it as though she were a wanderer that had discovered an oasis; joy flooded her face as she took in the view. “Finally”, she sighed, eager to get on with things. The communication line crackled open, informing the team of the first obstacles that they would encounter. Tailin knew in a heartbeat what she wanted to do. Tackling four armed men in a moving vehicle? Sounded like her cup of cola.

“Hey, does anyone have echolocation or something that we could use to find that jeep?”, she inquired. “I wanna go blow it up.”

Natalie spent the thirty minute walk deep in thought, and had come to the conclusion that this was all probably some kind of virtual reality program. There was simply too much that didn't make sense. Why were they infiltrating this bunker during the day? Why would Ramon have been brought here before everyone else? Most pressingly, why were they taking on a mission that was clearly beyond their scope? Because this was a training simulation. Even then, Ramon's presence still didn't make sense. The girl wondered if she'd ever get an explanation for that.

Natalie decided she would be cautious anyway, just incase her hypothesis was incorrect. How embarrassing would it be if she did something reckless because she thought this was VR and wound up dead? Pretty damn embarrassing, and potentially very painful. As the group approached their destination, their communicators provided them with some new intel. Tailin responded with yet another quip, earning a muffled snort from Natalie. As different as the two were, she found herself admiring the girl's initiative.

"Too bad there aren't any buses around here, or Magnesia could throw one at it." Natalie joked, then immediately covered her mouth.

Abi shrugged with a chuckle "A shame we're in short supply here, guess I could always give the jeep a good push, then again, I wouldn't say that'd be the stealthiest way to break into a bunker, considering that we're doing this in broad daylight"

"I'll definitely be able to break us in, we just need to get rid of those guards, quietly and efficiently. Suggestions?"

Austin listened closely to Abi. "If we can get close," he said. "I can drop down from the top of the entrance and use my powers to take out those guards. Not much I can do about the jeep though. We'll have to avoid it somehow."

OOC: my modem died on me so I can't get accents on my phone : ((((

Bertok listened to them discuss solutions to the predicament. Most of their powers seemed outwardly violent, not that helpful in situations like these. He, however, had a power that was more useful in non-combat situations if not because they wouldn't shatter instantly.

"I think I can provide either a distraction or some sort of cover to get us inside the base without alarming the guards," he explained as he unwrapped his mirror. "It's really up to us to decide what in the area would be worthwhile copying."

Though Tailin was disappointed that the others were not as enthusiastic as she about taking out the jeep, the prospect of a stealth mission had piqued her interest. It sounded like something straight out of a spy movie, and she liked that.

Following Bertók's suggestion, she looked around for things that the mirror-toting man might "copy", whatever that meant. Unfortunately; the girl had been too lazy to read through the report of the team's Manhattan mission and had had no luck learning the details of her team mates' abilities during the brief time before their departure, so she was uncertain exactly what Bertók meant. Still, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together when there were mirrors and "copies" involved.

Much as she tried, however, Tailin could find nothing of value in their immediate surroundings. There was only sand... and then it hit her. "Could you make a sandstorm?", she enquired, thinking back to her failed attempts at explosive movement on the dunes. "Or maybe a sand screen is more what I'm thinking. I could launch a bunch of sand into the air. If you copied that, we could move behind it."

Natalie shook her head. Now that ideas were flowing, she felt more comfortable sharing her thoughts.

"Why be so roundabout? Didn't Richter say he can affect the earth directly? He can just trap the jeep in a sinkhole or something."

Ramon listened to all the ideas floating around and then he heard Natalie directly mention him and his abilities. He thought about it for a moment and then thought he could POSSIBLY do something like that. He's never really worked well with sand before.

"Well, I could. But that'd still leave the task of finding the jeep in the first place and nobody noticing the jeep being missing."

"I'm sure we could contact Mercury," piped up Abi, "He's probably monitoring their patrol route presently through satellite imaging. So, we can get Richter to take out the jeep by sinking it into the sand...provided that he can manipulate it. Mind Buster can then send the mercenaries in the vehicle to sleep, so that Miroirs will be able to copy one of the mercenaries and have the image lead the mercenaries guarding the door to our location. MB will take these two out as well and then that gives us six disguises to wear as well as their access cards, which at least one of them should have on their uniform. The six of us in disguise will lead one of us as "captured" and head to the holding cells where they probably have the prince. Sounds good?"

"Sure, sounds neat," answered Tailin. The prospect of sneaking right under the enemy's nose was exciting. Though she was disappointed in the lack of direct combat involved in the plan, it would be a challenge nonetheless. That was good enough for her. "Just one thing," she added hesitantly, looking around at the other members of the group. "I'm not sure what exactly their soldiers look like around here, but from what I can imagine we don't exactly look the part." That was not the only problem with the strategy, she realized. "Don't women wear masks in this country, anyway?" Tailin sighed. It would have been a good idea had the team resembled more traditional soldiers, but as the rag-tag group they were, it was doomed to fail. "Unless one of you guys is a shape-shifter, I don't think this is going to work."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Natalie said, growing impatient. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to withstand another round of speculation. "What matters is that we have a plan to get past the guards. I say we move out as soon as we locate the jeep."